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Friday, 8 August 2008

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

As usual, it is always a difficult task for me to pick up a recipe from my ever-growing to-do list of cakes & bakes. I was thinking of making some Japanese melon pans, but decided against it as it will take up quite a fair bit of time and effort...then I thought maybe I should make a blueberry crumble cake as I just bought another 2 packs of fresh blueberries.

In the end, I decided to give another try on making a chiffon cake since I failed miserably during my recent attempt on a mango version. I could only blame it on my unstable oven temperature. The temperature of the oven dropped by at least 20 degC when the cake was in the oven for less than 5 mins. Even if I were to turn up the temperature setting to 200degC, the temperature would not bulge. As a result, the cake was baked at 150 degC. Even though it did rise and expand, but upon unmolding, the top of the cake caved in :'((

I had better luck this time with this Early Grey Chiffon cake. The recipe is original meant for a Japanese green tea chiffon. I replaced it with Earl Grey as I have been looking for a similar recipe that will suit my small chiffon pan.

The steps involved in the making of this cake is similar to other chiffon cake recipes. To ensure a very stable oven temperature, I preheated the oven 20mins earlier. By the time the cake was ready to bake, the thermometer registered a temperature of 190degC, once I popped in the cake, the temperature started to drop...it went down to 170degC, just the right temperature! I left the cake to bake for 50mins, I don't understand why this recipe calls for baking the cake for such a long time as compared to others, which usually would take about 30-35mins. When the cake was in the oven for about 35mins, I couldn't help but to open the oven door to slip in an aluminium foil to tent the top, although it was only slightly browned. This caused the oven temperature to drop by another 5 degC.

Fortunately, the cake rose beautifully in the oven, it almost reached the tip of the tube...however, towards the end of the baking time, it started to shrink and upon cooling, it was slightly under the rim.

I was very pleased when the cake was unmolded...unlike my previous attempts...there were no obvious big holes on the surface of the cake. The sides were also baked to a nice golden hue :)

If you like Earl Grey tea, I bet you will like this cake too. The fragrance from the Earl Grey was so prominent that it was as if I had a cup of hot Earl Grey tea by my side. I must say this is by far the best chiffon cake I have made...not in terms of flavour, but rather, the texture of the cake was very good. The cake was light, soft and yet 'springy'(I'm not sure whether this is the correct term to describe it though!). To me, this recipe is certainly a keeper. On the other hand, both my kids didn't like the cake at all...the younger one tried his very best, and yet he could hardly finish one small slice of it, he told me that I shouldn't have used 'pepper' to make the cake, lolz!

Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature. (It is easier to separate eggs when they are cold.)

Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add in sugar, in 3 separate additions and with a manual whisk, whisk till the mixture becomes sticky and turn pale.

Drizzle in the oil, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the water. Sieve over the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter. Add in the earl grey powder and mix well.

In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat on high speed until just before stiff peaks form* (after note: after several attempts at baking chiffon cakes, I learned that the whites should be beaten until just before stiff peaks form).

Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.

Pour batter into a 18cm (7 inch) tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degC for 45 ~ 50mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Recipe source: 好想为你亲手做出美味的甜点! 检见崎聡美著

Note: you may replace Earl Grey tea with other tea of your choice, like matcha or green tea. If the tea leaves are coarse, use a mortar and pestle or a grinder to grind it till fine and powdery.

79 comments:

Another great bake from u! It's really a joy to read through your blog every time and I always look forward to seeing new post from u. :) Btw if I am using a 20cm cake pan instead, how much more ingredients do I need? I am always lost when my cake pan size differs from the recipe....

Hi happyfoodhappythots, I'm so glad to hear that you like reading my blog posting! I'm always very worried that my writing will bored my readers to death! This recipe is meant for a 7" pan, I would not advise you to adjust the recipe to suit your pan size...it's better to look for one that is meant for a 20cm pan, as chiffon cake can be quite tricky to get it right...at least for me ;p

Oh, I like Earl Grey so much ! should make a small one for myself, hubby doesn't like it, he says that bergamot reminds him of essential oil, the last time I did a Lavender chiffon, he don't quite fancy it too......

Hi Ganache-Ganache, I am also thinking of making a Lavender version ;)

SiHaN, do let me know after you have tried it! happy baking :)

Redsister, Jacque, Jessica, Eliza, thanks for your kind words.

Sherlyn, I am still not able to control the oven temperature...it's pure luck that I get it right this time!

Hi Sally, I saw your roast chicken, it looks delicious!

Hi Sophia, I used medium sized eggs.

Thanks Ah Teo!

Hi Yalia, I use a very thin-bladed knife to remove the chiffon cake. Run it around the side of the pan, try to press the blade against the pan instead on the cake...do the same for the centre core (you may use a long skewer to run around the centre core), the realse the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan.

Thanks for your reply... Well, the cake was tough on the outside and very dry on the inside... I follow through the recipe accordingly. However the recipe is for baking in Oven not microwave oven. So, I'm not sure should I lower down the temperature or bake longer...

Hi Kristie, you can give it a try with the orange paste. I made a lemon version two days ago...I used 25ml of lemon juice and 50ml of water, added in the zest of 1 lemon, and kept the rest of the ingredients the same. The lemon chiffon tasted great :D

Hi Kristie, I was just playing around with the recipe, and it works fine. For this earl grey version, yes I tear open the sachet and use the leaves inside. The black speckles on the cake are the tea leaves. It taste really good.

btw, I made the orange chiffon cake version, it was really nice, I used abt 3/4 orange paste flavouring, and instead of water, I used orange juice. I think it was a bit sweet and the colour was deep orange.

Maybe next time I will reduce to 1/4 orange paste and used the same amount of orange juice.

Hi Kristie, the original recipe uses green tea Leaves not powder. As such I am not sure how much green tea powder you can replace. If you are using matcha powder, 1 tablespoon may be too much. You can try with 2 tsp, howeever, since I have not tried it, I am not able to comment on the outcome.

I went to a remote island in Japan for an internship and was asked to come up with some new recipes which make use of the island's local herbal tea. It was very fortunate for me to come across your recipe. The cake turned out surprisingly good despite the fact that I cooked it with rice cooker.

Hello..i've actually tried baking a couple times of the chiffon. sometimes it turn out good but sometimes it tend to collapse like as if the top is too heavy. may i ask what is the reason? is it because the temperature was not controlled well enough? how did you managed to get such perfect looking chiffon cakes? it's so defined and beautiful! and may i also ask why you don't need to grease the pan? Thanks! Love your blog! It's fantastic!

Hi Michi, I am no good at baking chiffon cake. I am not sure what happened...but it could be due to the beating of the egg whites...you have to beat it till stiff peak. The oven temperature also affects the outcome...if the cake is underbaked, it may collapse upon cooling. It is not necessary to grease the chiffon pan, as the batter needs to cling on to the sides of the pan so that it can rise nicely during baking. Hope this helps :)

hi thereI came across your blog when looking for an earl grey cake and this recipe looks great! And what I thought more interesting was that you're from Singapore. I too am Singaporean but live in the Bay Area. I look forward to trying it out and reading more of your blog posts! Happy baking!

I've tried baking the chiffon again. This time it turned out so yellow. The last time I made was more white like the picture you have. May I ask was it due to the colour of the egg yolks? Should I use less egg yolks and more egg whites?

Hi sushi, the Dilmah tea leaves in the teabag is very fine, powder form, so I do not have have to grind it (since I don't even have a blender!). If you like earl grey tea, you will like this recipe as the cake smells of earl grey :)

Hi HHB, i've been following your blog's recipes on this Chiffon cake. Eventually i used green tea powder and substitute 30ml with milk n 45ml water. not sure wat happened, the cake collapsed during the baking time in the oven. Could u pls advice me where did it goes wrong?

Hi Jennifer, I am really not sure what went wrong as it could be due to many factors. It could be the oven temperature or the beating/folding of the egg whites. Was there any problem when you follow the original recipe?

Hi Sushi, you can use plain flour (same amount), but cake flour will give a better texture as it contains less gluten. As for self raising flour, since it contains baking powder, which is not called for in this recipe, it may not be appropriate to use it. You can visit this site www.joyofbaking.com to look at how to substitute plain flour with cake flour.

Oh i see.... Thanks for sharing :) I will try your chiffon making.I was sad the day before i came across your blog, i took a recipe of making banana chiffon from the website and it turned out to be awful!My kids were sad too... ( waited yet nothing for them! haha)

One Q, i just wonder can i try using earl grey tea instead of water to increase the aroma? of course not omitting the tea leaves.....

this is a really great recipe! the cake was springy, soft and light like how you describe it. but i used the wrong tea.. instead of earlgrey i used english tea >.< oh btw, i use the happycallpan to bake it yet it is still successful! will be trying out other flavours like citron :)